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The makers of Italian action game have endured the longest development journey
in history. Their game is now finally out – on the long-discontinued Game Boy
Advance
In 2002, a group of five Italians made the local news: they were going to be the
first company in the country to develop a game for Nintendo’s popular portable,
the Game Boy Advance. The cadre pulled together a few hundred euros and some
computers to prepare for the project. They had no experience making games. They
didn’t even have a programmer. All they had was a love for video games, a shared
hatred of working for bosses and endless optimism.
For the next two years, the group worked away. Late nights were common and the
team barely took any time off. It was a grueling time, but they were determined
to make an ambitious game with complex features. Its name was Kien. If you
haven’t heard of it, that’s because it never came out – until now. The action
platformer didn’t see the light of day until this year, by which time most of
the original team had long since moved on. Only one member of the group of five
remained: game designer, Fabio Belsanti, who never lost belief in the project.
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